If you’re still rocking one of Samsung’s first generation Galaxy S smartphones or its original Galaxy Tab, then you may want to sit down. There will be no Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for you, as these first-gen devices just can’t handle all of the sweet update with TouchWiz running on top.
Ice Cream Sandwich and TouchWiz won’t play nice on the original line up since these devices lack the necessary amount of ROM and RAM. We saw something very similar with HTC’s Desire handset, in which HTC was eventually forced to remove some elements of Sense to fit in the Gingerbread update. That said, the Nexus S, which is getting the Android 4.0 update soon, essentially shares the same hardware but with the stock Android experience. This is just another reason why having a Nexus device or handset with stock Android will get your further when it comes to updates.
Although the update won’t come in official form, that certainly doesn’t mean that the development community will give up on the devices and a custom ROM may be cooked up to give you just what Samsung won’t. Still, in a world where a phone released six months ago is considered old, we wouldn’t be surprised if most developers are focusing on newer handsets.
While we have our doubts that manufacturers will tone down custom user interfaces on their handsets, we do hope they keep in mind that people will be expecting the latest update on their Android phones. Well, at this point, maybe they aren’t expecting big updates and that’s just sad. Samsung, just be sure that the Galaxy S II at least gets Android Jelly Bean.
Is anyone surprised that the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab aren’t getting Ice Cream Sandwich? While it seems that both have the hardware to support it without TouchWiz, I had already assumed that they were SOL.
[Via: TheVerge]